Carroll and his coaching staff took a step back to do some self-scouting, something he said is difficult to do during a normal week. The Seahawks' own tendencies were a focus. Improving on third down – on both sides of the ball – was a priority.

"You don't get that clear thought to step back in that sense until you get to the bye week," Carroll said.

Same goes for watching games on television. Carroll, a defensive-minded coach, was impressed by how Stanford held Oregon's prolific offense to 14 points in an upset win over the top-ranked Ducks.

"I thought that was one of my favorite games that I probably will see all year," he said. "I can't wait to get the film. I want to watch the Stanford-Oregon game. I want to see how they did it and what they did to get it done."

Less exciting to Carroll was watching his former team, USC, lose to crosstown rival UCLA. The Trojans have had the upper hand in that rivalry in recent years.

"They deserve it. It's been a long, hard haul for them, for sure," Carroll said of the Bruins. "But that was painful, as you could imagine."

It wasn't all football, however. Carroll said he saw two movies, "Lincoln" and "Flight." He called the latter "a powerful movie."

It was more of a break for the players, who weren't exactly required to run their bye-week plans by their head coach.

"The fellas didn't text me about where they were," Carroll joked. "They did not check in much. I knew a couple trips that a couple guys were making, but we weren't tweeting together."